The title implies this story hinges on one big lie, but actually there are a number of lies told. The Lie by CL Taylor is an examination of the group dynamic between four girlfriends who go on holiday together, seeking catharsis and finding horror. Before, during and after the holiday there is friction and bitching but once in Nepal they find betrayal, lies, bullying, intimidation and violence. Then five years later, the past threatens again.

The story is told in parallel – now, as Jane, who works at an animal rescue centre, receives a mysterious letter; and five years earlier, when Jane [then called Emma] went to a yoga retreat in Nepal with her friends, Daisy, Al and Leanne. When Emma starts to be suspicious of the retreat and the people who run it, it is too late to escape.

Unfortunately I didn’t connect emotionally with Jane or her three friends. I found them unsympathetic at the beginning and inter-changeable, which meant it was longer before I ‘got’ the book. The age of the friends, and their partying, made this feel more like a chick-lit book than CL Taylor’s debut, The Accident. A yoga retreat in Nepal seemed an expensive place for the four of them to go, and when they arrive it is shabby and short of food: all things which set my alarm bells ringing.

It will make you never want to go on a yoga holiday.

Read my review of CL Taylor’s first novel, The Accident.

If you like ‘The Lie’, try:-
‘Stolen Child’ by Laura Elliot
‘Gone Girl’ by Gillian Flynn
‘The Past’ by Tessa Hadley

‘The Lie’ by CL Taylor [UK: Avon] Buy at Amazon

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
This is not meditation: THE LIE by @callytaylor #bookreview http://wp.me/p5gEM4-24L via @SandraDanby